Ethiopia To Evacuate 80,000 People After 5.8 Magnitude Earthquake

View of Addis Ababa, Ethipia. Referencial image. Photo: Xinhua / Li Yahui

January 4, 2025 Hour: 3:00 pm

The Ethiopian government reported on Saturday that it is working to evacuate some 80,000 people from their homes in the Afar region (north-east), where, after months of seismic activity, a new earthquake occurred on Friday with no fatalities.

“The Government has identified areas close to the epicenter of the earthquake. Based on this, 80,000 vulnerable residents have been identified and work has begun to move the area’s residents”, authorities said in a statement.

According to the Executive, the quake, confirmed by other institutions that monitor seismic activity in the region, reached a magnitude of 5.8 on the Ritcher scale.

The earthquake occurred at a depth of about 10 kilometres and had its epicenter near the districts of Fentale (on land bordering the neighbouring region of Oromía) and Dulecha, which are located south of Afar and in the centre of the country.

🚨🇪🇹⚡️5.1 MAGNITUDE ⚠️
EARTHQUAKE HAS HIT ETHIOPIA AGAIN Over 30 homes have collapsed they have had an earthquake swarm of 50 large quakes in 3 days from 4.0 to 5.6 and over 150 2.0 to 2.9 quakes.

They have many volcanoes in the region and a major dam that could crack some… pic.twitter.com/y1H6vHwIEf
— Todd Paron🇺🇸🇬🇷🎧👽 (@tparon) January 3, 2025

This has exacerbated the situation in the area after at least 30 houses collapsed in recent days, residents have lamented, due to increasing tremors around a volcano that has shown signs of erupting, forcing people to leave their homes.

The volcano on Mount Dofan, expelled this Friday smoke columns, according to videos shared in social networks and in the local press, after months of seismic movement.

According to EFE press agency Elias Lewi, the director of the Institute of Geophysics and Space Science at the University of Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, attributed these phenomena to an explosion of compressed gas and water, but denied that it was an eruption.

“This cannot be considered a volcanic eruption but it is a sign that an eruption could occur,” Elias said.

According to local media, since late September the US Geological Survey (USGS) has recorded more than 67 earthquakes in this area, which is located in the Ethiopian Rift Valley.